Floating...

The second day Mikael and Katarina were here it was going to be a really hot day so we went floating down the Elk river! There are many different locations where you can rent canoes or kayaks for a day of fun. You get to choose your own time frame and then the people from the rental place come pick you up down the river. We got ours at Kozy Kamp and paid 40 USD / Kayak for an 8 miles float. We didn't really know what to expect since we had the small girls with us, but we hoped they'd do good and not get bored after 30 min. Just in case we told the manager that we might give them a call if we needed to retreat....

We brought fishing equipment, plenty of water, and a cooler with snacks like fruit and nuts ( we did forget alot of it in the car though...) and sandwiches. And of course sunscreen, and hats! We figured we were going to make it in about 5 h with alot of stops along the way. We also had one life-jacket for Jamie. ( The rest of us got from the rental company).

We left around 11 o'clock and the sun was already burning so it was very nice to go out in the water and swim... Elk River has very clear water with bottom and alot of different fish. ( Pearch, Sunfish, Suckers, Carp, Bass...) and of course also other animals..turtles..snakes..spiders. Even though I had my doubts about this trip together with the girls, we had an amazing, wonderful day! All of us enjoyed it very much! It was so relaxing to just float down the river. Natalie was in Mikael and Katarina's kayak the whole day, and Jamie just enjoyed it without trying to escape the boat or get bored. We did stop for swimming and fishing alot so I guess that was very necessary for Jamie to stay patient.Mikael got lucky a few times and actually caught 2 fish!

But of course..this day also included some extra drama ( or excitement)...When were halfway we got surprised by a smaller rain/storm with some extra dark gray clouds. We left the water in a hurry and searched for protection ( or mostly to get away from the water just in case of thunder..) up on the riverbank. The wind and rain got heavier (extreme with swedish measurements..) so at least I started to get real worried for what the dark clouds were gonna bring..( you can't really deny that we are in the tornado valley..) Jared was of course calm and played with Jamie in the rain... Mikael looked around the area and found an abandon barn a little bit up the road so while the wind and rain increased we ran up there to try to get out of the storm. Luckily we never got any thunder and lightning.. After 20 min or so in the barn we could get out again. It was a good thing that we found a place under roof because both girls were really wet and even if it was around 35 degrees C outside you can always start to freeze, so they got dry clothes and warmed up quickly again...puh  I can say I wasn't really scared but the adrenalin started to pump a little extra because I know what dangerous weather conditions can roll in very fast...  Anyway a short while after this little unplanned break we got sunshine and clear blue sky again!

We reached our goal around 5.30 p.m so all in all it took around 6 h. We were all very satisfied with the day and this is something I really recommend for everyone to do if you have the possibility. It's a good activity for all ages and since it's downstream the bodywork you do is minimal. I'm sure this is something we will do soon again!

Here are some pictures that Katarina took. I will put up more later...

On the way to Missouri...

This time we picked an evening flight from Copenhagen. My experience tell me that it is easier to fly in the afternoon or evening with small children. We flew cheap with Norweigan and got lucky so we had 6 seat for us 4, which meant that both girls could lay down and get a whole night of sleep! And both of them slept for most of the flight. We didnt have any delays or unexpected problems and landed 8.30 in Florida. I can say it is alot easier and more relaxing to travel two adults instead of alone with the girls!  It took a while at the airport to get the luggage and go through the passport control. I also had to see some more people from the homeland security to verify my visa, but that was pretty fast. We took a cab to Miami Beach, app. 40 min from the airport.  It was relatively expensive (70 USD), but it was late in the evening and we needed to go to bed as quick as possible since we knew the girls were going to wake up quick after bedtime.We picked a hotel one block above the beach (Catalina Hotel), but we didn't read the reviews so much and this hotel was obviously not a family friendly one... I guess it was a good location for partypeople..but not for us... It didn't matter so much because all we did was to sleep for a few hours and then left,  but I don't recommend this hotel for families.

Miami beach was nice, we had a half day at the beach and because Jamie woke up at 2 a.m. we started the day early.... The sun didnt rise until close to 7 so we had alot of hours to kill before daylight. Next to the hotel they had a really good breakfast restaurant, and we had a looong breakfast there while Jamie took her (normally lunch) nap. Before that we took a walk in the area in the middle of the night and looked for a coffeplace or something that served food... but everything except a grocery store was closed until 7 a.m... We could at least get something to snack on for the girls... Well, we walked along the beach until sunrise and actually played in the water for quite a while before breakfast. The beach was very nice and relatively shallow so the kids could play without too much worries. We were going to catch our fight  3 p.m in Miami so we had the whole morning to play at the beach. The hotel offered free shuttle service so we took that for the 30 min drive to the airport...saved some money and got Jamie the opportunity to fall asleep again before our flight.  We only had a short first flight to Atlanta so we didn't "need" her to sleep over that flight. Between our flights we had dinner (Really good homecocked Salmon by the foodcourt!) and let the girls run around as much as possible at the gate. We had 3.5 h to Tulsa so we knew Jamie would go to "nightsleep" during the flight. We were all still jetlagged and tired so the rest of us actually slept for a while as well. When we finally arrived in Tulsa it was 9.30 in the evening so Rhonda picked us up and I can say I fell asleep as soon as I got in the car and barely heard the extreme thunderstorm on the way to Rhonda's house in Stella,Missouri...

Wonderful weekend...

A few weekends ago we went on a little roadtrip with Grandpa Christer and 5-year old uncle Hugo. We left early morning heading east to Öland, an island right outside the city Kalmar. We arrived short after lunch and started with a visit to the royal park Solliden. All three kids had a lot of fun running around inside the park, and we also had a nice "fika" at the cafe. The only problem we had was to keep Jamie out of the grass, though the signs clearly announced DO NOT WALK ON THE GRASS...not so easy for a 1.5 year old....I can say she didn't really care about the royal laws...

Anyway we had a nice and sunny afternoon before we head north to the big campsite Böda Sand, where Dad had booked two cottages for us. On site we grilled some skewers and watched the kids play on the playground. This campsite is huge, but tonight it felt like we were almost alone. The morning after we were actually all alone on the long and pretty beach. I don't think that happens so very often at Böda beach....The water was cold but Natalie, Hugo and Dad took a bath...of course...  After breakfast and the quick swim we drove up to Vimmerby and  Astrid Lindgrens värld. This is a themepark in honor of the beloved and world famous author Astrid Lindgren. We had a absolutely wonderful afternoon in the park, and I was really impressed with it and also with the live shows all over the park. To see Natalie's facial expression when she met Pippi Longstockings for real was a priceless moment. She loves Pippi and now she actually got to talk with her and give her a hug... ( and she is still sure it was real Pippi..which I can understand because they did an extremely good casting job for the role...) We'd already planned to buy 2-day tickets and I must say that is something I recommend for kids in this age ( 1.5, 4 and 5) so they have plenty if time to explore without being too tired. The night we spend at Fredensborgs Herrgård, which was a nice and calm oasis after a day in the children's park. This was a great place for children, with a good kid's buffet for dinner and a playground outside the dining area in the yard. For the adults they had a little more advanced a la carte, with a good selection of beverages. We did go to bed quite early so we could get ready for the next days adventure. I slept like a little baby... Next day we were up before 6 a.m so we had to take a morning walk before breakfast. But it was well worth wating for...a delicious breakfast with high quality, homemade or locally produced food. This buffet had everything you'd ask for, but could go by the slogan Less is more...
After breakfast we drove the 10 min to Astrid Lindgrens värld, and got ready for another day full of impressions, smiles, playtime and unforgettable memories together...   Thank you so much Pappa/ Morfar Christer for spending this weekend with us!